IMPORTANT NOTE (albeit, a hint personal)
One of these Name & Shame type sites is being pushed by a UK based group and as such, one of the names (when it comes to individuals they consider to be a "Pirate", is me. . . you'll even see it posted boldly on one particular person's Lulu Storefront with a reward offered to anyone that finds me seeking to get copies of his material). But there are things that people muddle when it comes to definitions, especially in an era where we can bend & twist words to mean what we want them to vs. what Merriam Webster presents.
BOOTLEGGERS at least since the early 1970s into the early 2000s, referred to people that copied & manufactured effects without legal consent. This is an issue that was "invented" within the magic community specifically due to one particular incident involving a Chicago based builder named Jim Sommers and a certain British gent named Robert Harbin and issues around the Zig Zag. Sommers was the first to build the effect (I believe it was prior to the book's release) and perform it but, given his low standing at the Magic Castle vs. Harbin's, a big to-do came about. This was the first time that the "establishment" put its two-cents into such a thing . . . up to this point in time copying an effect wasn't just common place, it was what gave the magic industry a healthy level of honest competition e.g. price & quality could be shopped by consumers vs. our being forced to pay premium rates without option.
The Thayer Magic Company alongside Abbotts, the two biggest magic producers for decades, would have the biggest position of gain, had they enforced the whole "Intellectual Property" issue in their day. Magic would have lost on many significant levels had they done such. Oddly, I am in the vicarious position of benefiting from these "protections" against bootleg magic because of my ties to Creative Illusions & Ken Whitaker as well as other designers of note. I love seeing royalty checks BUT, I also think such thinking has become extreme and started hurting magic as well as compounding the already outrageous political manipulations therein. We must now pay more if we want to do a piece we purchased outright, if we do it on TV and even then we must pay more if we do it locally or nationally in one country vs. another country, etc. In some instances we have to get permission from the builder and developer, just to sell a piece and worse yet, certain props require that we send the item back to the purchased source to allow them to handle the sell, from which you get a fraction of the price paid.
Kind of makes you wonder who the "Pirates" are, doesn't it?
PIRATES when it comes to books and other such media (CD, DVD, Video, etc.) are something that oozed out of the music industry more than anywhere else. This is the world where mass reproduction of albums, photos, posters, etc. that were "unauthorized" by the corporate entities that surround musical performers and certain iconic actors, exists. Today, the primary source of Pirated Material is the Chinese Military of all things. Long story short, the government cut back on military salaries and told them to figure out how to fix things for themselves. The result was bootlegging copies of popular music releases, motion pictures, and products. Today this ideology has spread into South & Central America (the #2 leader of such work) and parts of Africa as well as the Russian mob. . . an interesting thing when you consider how much it's costing the Italian/Jewish/Irish a.k.a. American Mob.
My point is, "Pirated" material is mass produced and used either as a form of barter/horse trading or as a vehicle via which personal or group capitol is generated; frequently through the auspices of eBay and similar auction sites, but likewise through "Free" outlets like Torrents and File Share networks (which have been seriously curbed in the past two years).
A PIRATE IS NOT an individual that loans or borrows books/dvds, etc. amongst a small handful of trusted friends. Nor is a Pirate an individual that shares a purchase with one or two friends that have chipped in to purchase a book or similar source. Let's face it, many of us can't afford $80.00 books but we could afford $20 bucks or so. . . having a couple of chums in the same shoes means you can all have the thing you're after as EQUAL partners.
When I was younger the borrowing/lending of books and even swapping of texts was common place, it's what FRIENDS and NEIGHBORS did and how the sense of COMMUNITY was defined. I'm certain that many here owe their "success" when it comes to learning, to those mentors and guides that shared such material even though it has become more and more a "delicate" process these days as the result of faux ethics & morality which would be better defined by one simple word -- GREED with a big chunk of ego tossed in on the side.
FREE ACCESS to materials, including recent releases is very common in the outside world as well as magic; it comes in the form of Libraries belonging to individuals and/or clubs. Some would tell us that "loaning" material is a breech of copy right and yet, the Federal Government and the majority of major publishers in the world don't see it that way. Material donated to libraries of all kinds, is there for public consumption, PERIOD.
Granted, there are a handful of limited instances in which corporate and even military related materials fell into such a setting and by formal request, said pieces have been "censored" -- removed from "general" public access. . . it would still be available upon request and sometimes with the requisite letter of permission or things like the "freedom of information act", but access existed. I'm not aware of any case in which complete "official" removal of materials has occurred, though I'm more than confident that some have deliberately stolen books from libraries and even book retailers, because they didn't want the material available to the general public. . . this includes magicians removing texts from the shelves of Barnes & Noble or similar sources.
THINK ABOUT THIS. . . how far would magic had evolved if things like the Thumb Tip, could only be purchased legally, through one or two sanctioned sources? What if the only type of TT available was made of Wood or Metal as most of the earlier versions of the gimmick were (along with clay and bee's wax)? More so, what if you had to first pay the company that held the copyright and patents, etc. on that device $50.00 just for the right to buy it. . . then you had to pay an additional $100.00 or whatever the asking price was set at, in order to have it and yet, you were only allowed to use this thing in certain restricted areas of the state, provence, nation. . . unless you paid another $50.00 to buy more territory. . . or you had to pay an additional $100.00 to use it on Tv. Worse yet, if you come up with an effect that used this amazing gimmick, you had to share the profits with the holder of the rights to said device and it could only be sold through that source and to those they deemed worthy. . .
Does this sound like a productive way to allow magic or any industry/art to grow & evolve?
Absolutely Not! Yet, that is the direction things seem to be headed as more and more "innovators" use legal jargon and manipulations as a way to "protect" their brain children a.k.a. put money in their pocket while building a brand name around themselves, alongside the myth of greatness due to exclusivity.
Like I said, I love my royalties BUT, I love magic far more and as such, there are very few things that I've developed that I'd place restrictions on. Usually items that I've developed for a specific person or act vs. general release as well as those that I only want a limited release of (there's 3 such pieces on the horizon btw . . . and I am shopping for the right crafts people for making them). In general, and as most of you have witnessed, I give it away because I want YOU to grow. But look at my inspirations. . . it's easy, just look at Tarbell or Corinda or any number of other books printed during the early into the mid 20th century and count how many familiar & legendary names you find as contributors to these books or any number of magazines. None of them were paid for these contributions, they gave because of the art (as well as friendship).
We need to get back to THAT mode of thinking and toss this selfishness and self-serving off to the side; Greed gets us nowhere fast. While we may end up with carnal wealth & things, we typically loose our humanity and between you and me, that's too high a price to pay.
NO, I'm not cosigning the idea of piracy on any level. I'll go after a thief. . . a genuine criminal, in a hot second (and have). But you will never hear me raise hell over the act of borrowing & lending. . . and yes, that includes digital copies in that it's the only way we can do such now days unless it's a physical book we mail. . . even then, I've had at least one incident in which the person I lent a physical copy to, scan and attempt to use it as barter (at the Cafe, no less. Said crook is now part of their management team).
I encourage you all to give pause when it comes to this issue and do some serious thinking as to what is and is not Piracy and why.
